[Physics] Magnetic field outside a solenoid

magnetic fields

I couldn't picture the idea behind the zero magnetic flux outside the solenoid properly. My teacher explained it as

"Components of the magnetic field in other directions are cancelled by opposing fields from neighbouring coils. Outside the solenoid the field is also very weak due to this cancellation effect and for a solenoid which is long in comparison to its diameter, the field is very close to zero."

But I didn't understand anything at all. First he said about the components of magnetic field in other direction being cancelled by magnetic field, but didnt further explain and said nothing to support his argument. If somebody has some simple, intuitive way of understanding this phenomenon then please explain it.

Best Answer

I tried to address this question in a short article that recently got published in the European Journal of Physics. https://arxiv.org/abs/1610.07876

You can also look at this article by Farley, Price, which uses a nice argument and physically motivates the problem (American Journal of Physics 69, 751 (2001); doi 10.1119/1.1362694): https://doi.org/10.1119/1.1362694

Also, there is an exact calculation done in this old NASA Technical Note D-465: http://paginas.fe.up.pt/~ee08173/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/finite-solenoid.pdf

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